'The Art of Machines'
Through Oct. 4, Rx Gallery

SIMPLE IN CONCEPT and beautiful in execution, Bruce Cannon's Reflection steals the show at the Rx Gallery's second-ever exhibition, "The Art of Machines." For Cannon, the piece represents the beginning of what will be a series of life-documentation tools/artworks. Its main components are a Windows PC, a flat-panel monitor, a digital camera, and an ornate gilt frame. Periodically, the viewer is supposed to face the work, gaze into its camera-eye, and snap a picture, which will be added to the database of images displayed as a slide show in the framed LCD (for this exhibition, Cannon has loaded the hard drive with pictures of himself taken over the course of Reflection's three-month development cycle). It's an ingenious digital-age twist on The Picture of Dorian Gray: a truth collector that combines subjective human vanity with the objective honesty of a machine. You can't help wanting one of your own, but you also can't avoid wondering whether you would really carry out its intended function once you brought it home. Imagine bad-hair days and puffy-eyed mornings ruthlessly captured and relentlessly broadcast with no opportunity for retouching. Ultimately, that is what Reflections is really about: the reduction of time and life to a few cold pixels and the question of whether its subjects will be strong enough to face the decay nature inevitably wreaks. Other standout works include Christian Ristow's Mouth, a kinetic sculpture that uses hydraulics and weapon components to create unsettling noise and motion (don't put your hand in there!); David Bowen's 50 Drones, a subtle comment on human group behavior using vibrating aluminum and PVC units; and Seemen's Monkey on Your Back, a wearable sculpture that translates motions and biorhythms into movement. Wed.-Sat., noon-5 p.m., 132 Eddy, S.F. (415) 860-6455. (Lindsey Westbrook)